Cards

New regulations that are sweeping across the banking industry, particularly the Durbin amendment to the Dodd/Frank Act, have financial institutions and other card issuers scrambling to find alternative ways to boost fee income as traditional revenue streams tighten over time.

The Secure Remote Payment Council reached a watershed moment of sorts last month when it cosponsored a one-day symposium with the Federal Reserve Board of Chicago.

Hypercom USA has changed its name to Equinox Payments LLC in a move that one analyst says should take no one by surprise.

Now that new Federal Reserve Board rules essentially have cut in half the interchange portion of the merchant acquirer expense for many debit card transactions, Global Payments Inc. plans to share “a significant amount of this” with its merchant clients, the company’s top executive told analyst during an Oct. 4 conference call to discuss fiscal first quarter earnings.

Passengers traveling by bus or train in Frankfurt, Germany, will have more options to pay for tickets using their mobile phones if they are carrying a Blackberry device when using the Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbund transportation system.

Visa Inc. has hired Gavin Krugel to work on its global mobile team to help the card brand to reach unbanked consumers in developing economies, Visa announced Oct. 5.

WASHINGTON–U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C.., is introducing legislation designed to make it easier for customers to switch banks.

The launch of Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire in late September stoked the flames of the tablet war raging among providers such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Inc., Research in Motion Inc. and Amazon Inc.

Apple Inc. is taking a pass on mobile payments for now as its new iPhone lacks a Near Field Communication chip.

Capitalizing on consumer outrage over a $5 monthly debit card fee Bank of America Corp. plans to impose, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is urging smaller banks to seize the “competitive opportunity” and go after unhappy BofA customers while suggesting the issuer would prefer its customers use credit cards instead.

OfficeMax Inc. customers may tap and pay using the Google Wallet mobile phone payment application at new checkout terminals the retailer has placed in more than 100 of its stores, the office-supply company announced Oct. 3.

Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union said it is has increased incentives to use its debit card by paying members 15 cents cash back on every debit card purchase through the end of the year.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., took to the Senate floor today in an impromptu attack on the $5 monthly fee Bank of America Corp. announced last week, demanding that BofA CEO BrianMoynihan justify the new fee, which kicks in next year.

Europe’s lingering debt crisis likely will cause some European banks to be wary of adhering to a pending deadline to accept euros as a common currency for electronic cross-border payments as part of the Single Euro Payments Area for eurozone countries, new research indicates.

Citigroup Inc., which last week touted its promise not to charge customers for using their debit cards, is countering lost interchange revenue in another way. The bank is telling some checking customers that it will start charging them $15 per month unless they maintain a balance of at least $6,000.

S1 Corp. has accepted a sweetened takeover offer from ACI Worldwide after spurning ACI’s earlier bid, the company announced Oct. 3.

A cloud is hovering over bankers due to the Durbin amendment and its impending impact on their revenue. However, for bankers who focus on unique opportunities to grow their customer base, these regulatory changes coupled with emerging technologies can present a profitable silver lining.

As the banking industry begins experimenting with a variety of strategies to offset revenue lost from new, lower debit-interchange rates, merchants may not get all the results they were hoping to see from the new debit-pricing rules that go into effect Oct. 1, one analyst suggests.

An ambitious plan to introduce a prepaid card system for private buses in Sri Lanka has run into union troubles, possibly derailing the rollout.

A wider availability of smartphones combined with more contactless acceptance at merchant locations should generate some $71 billion in Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments worldwide by 2015, new research suggests.